Migrants Brave Cold and Kidnap Attempts to Register for Asylum in New York City

For months, regardless of the cold, the rain or the wind, thousands of migrants like Nismerio Paz have spent the night in the street in front of the Federal building where all asylum seekers have to go, either to register with an official from ICE or appear before an immigration judge.

“For fear of not being here in the illegal country, I had to come here,” said Nismeiro Gonzalo Paz, a Colombian asylum seeker.

The inclement weather in New York is secondary. Among the stories of these migrants, the common denominator is the anguish about their future and the trauma of having crossed jungles, rivers and territories occupied by organized crime.

“We were going to enter through Mexicali, but the cartel stopped us before reaching our final destination and got us off the bus saying that they were immigration and they were not immigration. They put us in a truck and took us to the desert. Those of us who were there they told us: ‘we are from the Sinaloa Cartel and you are kidnapped,'” added Paz.

Eighteen days later, Paz’s family managed to raise the funds for his release —2,100 dollars— and with the other 37 who paid the ransom, he appeared before the United States border patrol, leaving a hundred migrants still kidnapped in Mexico.

Now he hopes he arrived early enough to keep the appointment he was given at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan.

A Venezuelan mother who did not want to give her name also camped for more than 12 hours with her four-year-old son.

“We had to come at dawn because there were many people to come to the appointment or to the presentations, but we didn’t count on the fact that we were going to see so many people,” said the mother. “The goal is to get to the office and be able to do our paperwork.”

A growing number of the nearly 60,000 asylum seekers in the five boroughs, no matter how many hours they spend outside in line, will not make it into the building if their space is exceeded before their shift.

For many what follows is a deportation order.

“Desperation, anguish and another happiness to be able to comply with the obligation to present yourself and that they can give you a new appointment and continue with the process,” said another asylum seeker who asked to be identified as Julio César.

Those who only have free or no legal representation have fewer chances, but all those who do not make it into the offices can document that they tried to attend.

“Migrants have to make sure they get into their appointments with the immigration court and if they don’t make it, document as best as possible that they were there and they were not allowed to enter, either by recording outside the building, raising a note with their lawyers so they can reverse any consequence, a deportation order in absentia,” explained immigration attorney Luis Gómez Alfaro.